In the conventional art, application sharing technologies (or remote visualization technologies) allow a sharing computer to display, project, or otherwise share an application, or the images on its display device, with other viewing computers coupled to the sharing computer. For example, by using protocols such as Virtual Network Computing (“VNC”), Remote Desktop Protocol (“RDP”), and NeWS, the sharing computer can share the images it sees on its display device with viewing computers coupled to the sharing computer via a network. Thus, if three applications are being displayed on the sharing computer's display device, such that one application image is staggered over the images of the other two applications, the very same image of the staggered applications will be displayed on the viewing computers.
One significant drawback to the conventional art is that the sharing computer cannot identify or select for sharing a particular region of the images displayed on its display device. Rather, the sharing computer must share all of the images being displayed, including extraneous, unimportant, or uninteresting information associated with the images, such as title bars, toolbars, shortcut keys or icons, and the like. As a result, the viewing computers are forced to display the shared extraneous information.
Additionally, neither the sharing computers nor the viewing computers understand anything about the content or context of what is being shared. For example, an email, a word processing document, and a media stream all appear identical to the sharing computer and the viewing computers. As a result, the sharing computer cannot determine what would be the most efficient, cost-effective, or otherwise appropriate means of sharing the image because it has no understanding of what is being shared. Similarly, the viewing computer cannot determine whether certain regions of the shared images contain important or simply extraneous information. Thus, when a screen reader application on the viewing computer reads the shared images on the viewing computer, it must read everything displayed on the viewing computer, including the extraneous information that is uninteresting or unimportant to the user of the screen reader application.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a system and method that provides for the identification of a region of a displayed image. Additionally, there is a need in the art for a system and method that provides for the selection of a region of a displayed image such that the region can be shared with other computers or applications.